Brand building Storytelling

Interesting link. How to tell your brand story.
https://yourstory.com/2017/10/brand-building-storytelling-entrepreneurship/?utm_source=OneSignal&utm_medium=BrowserPush

Kundan Shah - Enough for a Lifetime

The obituaries being written about Kundan Shah somehow make it sound like he began well but then he never really lived up to his initial success. Which to me is a completely wrong assessment of him and his work. For someone who gave us 'Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron', a movie I would watch any day any number of times, I feel he has done more than enough for a lifetime.

In fact while at a birthday party yesterday we were joking about D'Mello's character talking about how to deal with the cake - aadha kaho and aadha pheko. Or the other line - vilayat mein peene ka paani alag and gutter ka paani alag. Or just naming the characters on all the members of the crew - Vinod (Vidhu Vinod Chopra), Sudhir (Sudhir Mishra)...and the unforgettable Shobha ji, Tarneja, Ahuja and Priya.

Someone who gave us 'Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa' which still ranks among one of the favorite films to watch. Or a TV series like 'Nukkad', or 'Wagle ki Duniya'. or 'Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi'. All one will be remembered is for one such work. Millions would die to have something like JBDY on their resume. Just for that one creation Kundan Shah will remain up there in the all time greats. But then he had all those others too - equally good - which is fabulous. Stuff you seriously want to own, to show your children, to share with your friends because it touches that nice part of you deeply.

Kundan Shah, thank you for the laughs, for aspiring to a simple, bumbling life you showed in your films, and for elevating comedy to a fine art, a kind and generous space where everyone can laugh together and not a space where everyone is laughing at one person. It is subtle, intelligent and warm. Not the loud, offensive and in-your-face lazy stuff we see these days.

Kundan Shah's body of work is worth tens of the forgettable hit makers. My top 5 film directors of all time.  

Anjali - Cricket Practice And a New Phase

Anjali likes playing games and has a good ball sense and rhythm. She also has her favorite sports - badminton for one. She plays cricket with me, kabaddi with her friends at school, and I remember we played football and whatever else games we could when she was younger. She did ask me to enrol her in badminton classes but never cricket. So it was a pleasant surprise when I heard her pipe up while discussing the 'Cricket Practices and Life Lessons' workshop in Mumbai.

Off we go for the first day

'I also want to come Nanna,' she said.
'Come,' I said with no excitement. 'But you must come for all days. Not start and stop.'
'Yes,' she said.
'You will have to wake up every morning at 6 and get ready for the cricket camp,' I warned.
'Yes,' she said.
'You must wait till the classes get done and not hurry me home,' I said.
'Yes,' she said.
'There might be only boys and you the only girl,' I said.
'No problem,' she said.
 I had no other conditions. After we returned from Mumbai she looked for her white track pant (I insisted that she wears white like the other boys). We searched for a white t shirt and she soon found one. White socks and sports shoes and then her bat from Decathlon and she was all set.

Warming up with the right intent

On the first day she was up and ready.
'Are they big boys Nanna?' she asked apprehensively as we went to the academy. I know how that feels.
'No,' I said. 'Most are small. Maybe a couple of 15 year olds.' I had no clue how many would turn up.

'I will call you sir in the academy,' she said. 'After we step out I will call you Nanna.'
'Ok,' I said.

On the front foot

Anjali was all attention to the lessons. She did all that was required of her without complaining - if I said do 9 rounds she did it - so with stretching and other exercises. And everyday she did more - I was surprised at her stamina or rather drive. That was good. She got along with the boys fine. She made notes in her journal and every evening she did her homework. She participated and asked questions in the session.

Catching practice

When we showed them the drills she learned them quickly and that was something that surprised and pleased Baig sir who was there that day. He started using her to demonstrate the correct grip, stance and backlift, defence and drive. Anjali learned the bowling drills and fielding drills and practiced them diligently. She put up her hand when we asked for volunteers and answered when questions were asked. Good.

Discussing strengths and areas to improve

I wanted to see how she would cope with the discipline of getting up early every day but she was spot on. Except for the 'one minute more Nanna' pleas which lasted exactly one minute she would quickly get ready and be in the car with me. She told me she enjoyed the morning rides to the academy and would tell me what she liked or did not like about the sessions.

Listening with rapt attention

There were times of course when she got the wrong answer or could not demonstrate a particular practice well or just got brushed into the background and her face would just become small. But that is what the game teaches you and she learned to cope with it. She is still the perfectionist and does not want to be wrong and takes a long time to recover. So does Smaran and we covered it in the topic on resilience - that the champion quickly learns from his mistakes and recovers fast from a mistake. That they could do a mistake was itself a huge relief for them. There is still some work to do in that area but the seed has been sown. All of them mentioned it in their list of things they learned.

Demonstrating to the class

A few other that stood out were her quick application of things like target setting. When she went in to bat with Hardik they set themselves a target of 12 for their partnership and they helped their side win. Similarly when told to support the team she was always vocal about supporting her team - high fives and encouraging shouts when they did well.

Bowling in a game

She put up her hand when asked who wanted to lead and it was interesting for me to see how she would deal with older boys and also being the only girl in the group. She did a good job on day one. They won a tough match chasing a target of 40 and she did a great job by running singles and keeping sanity in an otherwise adrenaline packed atmosphere with the boys wanting to belt the cover off the ball and throwing all they learnt to the wind. Smaran was quick to recognise this and he voted her one of the two best captains in the group.

Team like a FIST

In her own way she did a great job with bowling despite her limited speed and skill there. She got the ball in the right areas and stemmed the runs from a whpping 23 in the first over to only four in the second. This encouraged Smaran who was their best bowler (in fact the best in the group) to trust her with the last over with only 11 needed. But she gave only four and they won. Talk of trust.

What was interesting about that last over was that she specifically told Smaran that she would bowl that over and would win the match.  Smaran later told me that he trusted her confidence and gave it to her.

In a later game when she was leading, she found Jaivant and Aarav tough to handle. When she wanted to bowl the second over Aarav took the ball and started to bowl, supported by Jaivant. She turned away and cried, but kept those tears hidden from me. Of course I could see what was happening but she had to learn. Bhupinder was concerned when he saw her upset. Then while batting Jaivant wanted to bat in her place when he had already batted and was really pushing her when I had to step in and tell him that he could bat only once, that he had to listen to the captain and just because he was a good player it does not mean he could bat for everyone else. He was supposed to maintain the dressing room atmosphere and support his team.

That day we had a chat on the way back and she was emotional and upset at how the boys pushed her over and did not listen to her. We first discussed how as players in a team we cannot wish some players away - all kinds of players form the team and we must make the best of what we have. We also discussed how as captain she could not let that affect her because it would affect the team. She had to hold her space and somehow convince the team and take it forward. If she gets affected the team gets affected. She nodded and understood how she needed to lead at that stage. It was a lesson I could not expose her to in any other way but the sport because once the game was over they were all friends again.

On the last day we did the lesson on courage - of facing difficulty head on despite the fear. In cricket, the short ball. They did it with a tennis ball and she held on despite getting hurt and despite the tears in her eyes. She got behind the ball, played and tried to play it right.

Much has been shared and learned and I am sure she is also observing me and my behavior, the other boys and their behaviors, and learning how to or how not to from them. The fact that she wanted a new bat for her birthday over a guitar was sign that she wanted to continue. We bought that and a pair of gloves. She also told me she wanted to come every Saturday and Sunday and I said I would take her. Baig sir is quite happy with her and told me to bring her over for a few weeks and well, long as she can sustain the interest and enthusiasm, and learns from Baig sir and others, I guess the lessons will continue.

On the backfoot

Today they were all there and I could see how much they had all improved as people and with skill - Aarav, Anish, Satwik, Hardik, Dhruv, Daksh and now Anjali. When Daksh wanted to change the captain we spoke about how they were part of teams and it was not for them to question captains and stuff and they either played for their team and captain or sat out.

Feeding me a piece of cake

I am pretty pleased with the way Anjali handled the initial fear and discomfort and is slowly settling down into her groove with the other kids. She has developed a relationship with Ann, Mallaiah, Bhupinder and Santsoh and certainly her bunch. Onwards then onto an interesting phase - one I never expected. But then life is life that isn't it, full of unexpected surprises. Like Nisha mentioned about Akshar 'I hope it makes a stronger person of him' I am convinced that Anjali is already a better person for having taken this step. Like I never tire of saying - cricket taught me more about life than anything else.

Judgment at Nuremberg - Movie Review

The 1961 Stanley Kramer movie focusses on the fictionalised version of the Nuremberg trials, especially those people in authority left after the death of the main leaders Hitler, Goebbels and others. The trials included those of Judges trial (16 racial purity jurists), doctors trial (23 Nazi physicians), Hostages trial (12 German Generals of the Balkan campaign), RuSHA Trial (14 racial cleansing and resettlement officials), High Command Trial (14 High Command Generals), Ministries Trial (21 Officials of Reich Ministries), Einsatzgruppen Trial (21 officers), Krupp Trial (12 directors of the Krupp group), Pohl trials, Flick trials, Farben trial (maker of Zyklon B).

The movie focusses on the trails of four judges (fictionalised) in the backdrop of what happened and brings about issues of justice, conscience, guilt and behavior and examines the thin line between what is considered duty and what is right. It is long but you never feel the length.

Judge Haywood arrives in Nuremberg to head the Tribunal that will hear the judges case. The prosecution is trying to make a case that the judges, though they had only sentenced a few people to death or other punishments, were also responsible for the holocaust which killed 6 million Jews. The defence tries to prove that the judges were only acting as per the law of the land and if they did not act as per the aw they would be ailing in their duty. The cases are about forced sterilization, racial purity killings and such. It is extremely delicate. Both lawyers take aggressive and tight stances.

The first case about a sterilisation case is successfully pulled down by the defence which kind of proves that the witness was not sound of mind and therefore as per the law in order, he had to be sterilised. The Feldstein case of racial purification is then brought up - and the prosecution manages to bring Ms. Hoffman to the stand. She clarifies that Mr. Feldstein had been like a father to her and very kind and no sexual relations existed between her and him. While defence tries to beat her down and break her with details of her so called affair, Ernst Janning, one of the accused and one who is much respected and of high position, roars and asks - Herr Rolfe, are we going to do it again? Meaning, are we going to subject her to injustice and indignity again. Burt Lancaster is fascinating to watch as the fallen hero atoning for his past sins. The case turns on his statement that he had already decided the punishment for Feldstein even before hearing the case and had sentenced him to death which was in line with popular opinion then.

In an interesting scene where the four accused are eating together they discuss the prosecution's tactics of showing graphic images of the holocaust to cast blame on these four. How could we have killed millions they ask each other. Then they ask Pohl, another inmate, and one who was in charge of a concentration camp if it was possible. It is, says Pohl, two chambers with poison gas can kill 10000 in half hour. And they could do that without guards. The problem was not the killing he explains, it was about disposing the bodies. The four men sit back in silence.

Judge Haywood finds all four guilty and sentences them to life imprisonment. Janning asks to speak to him before he leaves and tries to explain that he never thought it would come to what finally happened. But Judge Haywood puts it in perspective and tells him that the day he sentenced an innocent man to death he had started the process.

Fabulous movie. Can watch it any number of times despite the three hour length. I fact I watched a rerun for a second time to hear some dialogues and watch some scenes again. I need to read about the other trials. The movie presents both perspectives strongly - that Germans were not all as bad as they were made out to be, that most did not know what was happening, that they believed they were doing their country a service. Highly recommended. 

Rain Songs - Hindi

The other day we were home and there was tons of rain and we played some rain songs and I realised its been a while since I wrote music and I remembered some of the rain songs. Some of the very best. Is it just me or is there some magic in these songs that makes all things alive.

Ab ke Sawan - Jaisa Ko Taisa

Bheegi Bheegi Raaton Mein - Ajnabee

Rim Jhim Gire Sawan - Manzil

Kaate nahin kat te - Mr. India

Kammatipaadam - Movie Review

I loved the film. It deals with India's reality than most films. It does not divide castes in black and white but shows them like it is, castes and communities live together and interchangeably so in the work they do, but in the end the power equation remains the same. But it is so subtly done and never shows up as an issue between the two friends - Krishnan and Ganga.

Ganga is a dalit and Krishnan a high caste boy. But they are close friends, with Ganga the leader and Krishnan his ally. Ganga is exposed to a violent life, and has to fight to survive; his family is trying to make a living and survive. Krishnan is exposed to the same. They see Ganga's older brother, the violent and crazy Balan, who will not be cowed down and who hopes to make his own mark by asserting his position and not by asking for permission. Then there is Ganga's cousin whom Krishnan likes too.

As they grow older Krishnan is drawn into Ganga's life of crime, one which Balan leads. There is pride for the Kammatipadam boys, of all castes and communities, who fight and assert their rights at the black market in cinema theatres, with liquor smuggling and there is money and self respect and adrenalin. Ganga is a key member of the gang and it is but natural that Krishnan is where Ganga is. Their friendship is beautifully shown and it is clear that Krishnan will not tolerate anything done to Ganga. They make such a contrast too - the suave and good looking upper caste boy and the buck toothed dark, wild eyed Ganga. One day when Ganga is on the verge of being caught by the police  Krishnan thinks nothing of stabbing the cop and going to a correctional facility. That marks the beginning of a hardened Krishnan

Balan is forced to evict other dalits to make land for big complexes and you can see how the real estate ogre slowly consumes the poor and the backward and how the dalits are pitted against the dalits. Balan's grandfather dies of the shame and heartbreak of knowing that his grandson has evicted his own people and made them homeless. Balan loses heart and wishes to settle down to a straight life - he is also getting tired of constantly having to cope with Johnny, a rival. Krishnan urges Balan to turn straight and they dream of a life as travel agents. Krishnan even buys a tourist traveller.

Balan is killed in what appears to be an accident. Ganga believes Krishnan let his brother down because he was with him when he was killed. There is also the case of the girl - Krishnan likes her and she him - but Ganga stakes claim to her saying that their families would not agree to their marriage anyway. The friends part and Krishnan starts his agency.

When the gang hires him for a job Krishnan goes reluctantly and ends up saving Ganga again. Also helps him take revenge on Johnny but Johnny survives and swears revenge on them. Ganga disappears and Krishnan is caught by the cops but reveals nothing. With Balan dead and the gang in disarray Krishnan goes to Mumbai and settles down there as a security guard.

And then he gets a call from Ganga one night - a short call when Ganga tells him that someone is after him and he fears fro his life, that he is sorry about marrying Krishnan's love and that he hoped everything will be alright soon. Krishnan hears a whooshing sound and a crack, a ring tone of a mobile and then a few more whooshing sounds. Ganga's voice goes quiet.

Krishnan comes searching for Ganga who he believes is in danger. His search takes him to his old enemies Johnny and he ends up being stabbed by Johnny's brother though he annihilates the gang. He finally comes to their big chief, the man who controlled the liquor business and then the real estate business, the one responsible for Balan's bad ways and loss of land for dalits and in a moment of clarity realises whose ring tone it was that played on Ganga's phone and the swoosh of a golf club that is in the big boss's home. Krishnan kicks him out of the top floor of the apartment on a land built on the blood of the poor people of Kammatipaadam.

It moves at its own pace. The friendship of Krishnan and Ganga is so real, just as their destinies are. It is not so much the journey as the end. Salman as Krishnan, Vinayakan as Ganga and Manikandan Achari as Balan are outstanding. 

A Perfect World - Movie Review

Clint Eastwood's 1993 movie is pretty uneven, very Bollywoody, and rough in execution. The right intent but well, isn't the world full of them. So we have an escaped convict who is basically good at heart (Kevin Costner does not look like a criminal) and one nasty criminal. They bump off a couple of people (rather the other guy does). Kevin is a good guy who saves a lady from getting raped by the bad criminal and somehow ends up taking her son young hostage. Now the young son is the bad criminal's next target so Costner kills him.

The rest of the movie goes on about how Costner teaches the young kid to live his life, go for his dreams etc. They are being chased by a sheriff (Eastwood) who has little to do, one good looking psychotherapist and a trigger happy FBI chap (who propositions her when the movie is flagging). Ends up in a mess with the kid shooting Costner and with a Bollywood style ending where the FBI chap shoots him off even as he is told not to.

It is not a perfect world with movies like these. Too many contrived situations and movie-like stuff - like the sheriff having a past with Costner and wanting to seek redemption. Too filmy, too many angles, too little story.